Saturday, August 15, 2015

A Ride and a Tractor Show...

Today I went for a motorcycle ride. I did a 190 mile loop down to Turtle Lake, over to Camron, then up US-53 to Trego, then home. Along the way I stopped at the 31st Annual Moon Lake Threshermen's Association Threshing Bee and Gathering of the Orange, Allis-Chalmers tractor show & swap meet. It was just a few miles south of Turtle Lake, WI.

It was a very warm day in northern Wisconsin, and I debated all morning whether or not I should go. I'm glad I did, even with the temp in the high 80's, I managed to have a good time. I arrived just a few minutes too late to see the tractor parade, and most of the days events were over. I missed the opportunity to see old tractors powering belt driven items such as a rock crusher, a corn shredder, a lath maker, various saws and lumber planing displays. I missed the steam powered thresher too!

But even having missed a lot of the displays, I still enjoyed walking around rows and rows of old Allis-Chalmers tractors. Some still in original, unrestored condition, and some fixed up and looking nice enough to display in my living room!

There was a display of old cars too. Including a really nice 1936 Plymouth convertible with a rumble seat, and a 1949 Rolls Royce.

This friendly farm cat was taking a break in the shade...

I spent time talking to a few a few people, but one in particular was pretty interesting. This guy had his 1937 A-C B at the show. The 1937 B's were powered by a 113 cubic inch Waukesha engine. The Waukesha B's are rare, only 96 of them were produced in 1937. In 1938 A-C switched to their own 116 cubic inch engines. They went on to produce over 127,000 model B tractors between 1937 and 1957. I don't know how many of the Waukesha B's still exist today, but it's not all 96.

One more picture from today... A nicely restored B, of similar vintage, but much nicer condition than mine (maybe mine will look like this someday)...

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From one of my favorite motorcycle movies, "One Week".

"When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write?" ------- Ben Tyler

Took a look down a westbound road, Right away I made my choice Headed out to my big two-wheeler,I was tired of my own voice Took a bead on the northern plains And just rolled that power on

Twelve hours out of Mackinaw City Stopped in a bar to have a brew Met a girl and we had a few drinks And I told her what I'd decided to do

She looked out the window a long long moment Then she looked into my eyes She didn't have to say a thing, I knew what she was thinkin'